User Reviews

Hank and Anne Prentiss take up residence in the country. The neighbours, especially divorcée Terry Lawrence, and Luther and Helen Ames, appear to be very friendly.

Perhaps a little too friendly. Luther seems to openly desire Anne, while Helen is obviously attracted to Hank.

At a housewarming party, a drunken Terry confides to Anne that she and Luther once had an affair. She describes Luther as 'a man who likes to own people'. The next morning, Anne finds Terry dead from an overdose of sleeping pills.

Hank befriends Matt Dystal, an Irish scriptwriter, and learns about the fate of the last person to live at the house, Dick Parker. Like Terry he committed suicide. But not of his own free will...

Based on a story by Charles Beaumont, a frequent contributor to 'The Twilight Zone', this is a cracking episode. Like 'The Beckoning Fair One', it centres on a couple moving into a new home only to discover evil forces at work. Here its a cult of rich pleasure seekers, who having exhausted every perverse activity imaginable have drifted into Satanism. First-rate direction by Peter Sasdy, later to direct 'Taste The Blood Of Dracula' for Hammer.

And what a cast. The late Patrick Allen plays the urbane 'Luther', with Adrienne Corri as 'Terry', Milo O'Shea as 'Matt', and Melissa Stribling as 'Helen'. Seen in a minor role is Damien Thomas, later to play 'Count Karnstein' in Hammer's 'Twins Of Evil'.

'Hank' is the late Robert Reed, best remembered for his role as the father in the long-running U.S. show 'The Brady Bunch'.

The opening scene - Luther and his friends enjoy their party, oblivious to the fact that a dead man hangs from the ceiling - is one of the most chilling in the entire series.

It's difficult to understand how a TV show would be received on its initial broadcast . I have absolutely no idea of how JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN was marketed in 1968 because it's a show I remembered as being a supernatural/mystery/ thriller/horror series . One wonders what a viewer would have made of it in 1968 ?

Perhaps mindful of this the production team set up an intriguing hook from the opening scene . A bunch of party goers have a good time in a house and there's more than a little innuendo involved . I was expecting car keys to be thrown in to the centre of the room and members of the party copping off to the nearest bedroom . Better than that because a body is found hanging in a corner of the room

In effect The New People is an indicitive episode that sets up the show perfectly . We see a bunch of relatively well known faces from contemporary British Equity along with an American lead character . The story telling forsakes logic for mystery which is common in the horror genre and you're left in little doubt that the story is effectively one that belongs to the horror genre

Sadly what this means is there's often a lack of plausibility involved . One of the bad guys spikes the hero's drink which means they're able to arrive at the hero's house but the hero is too stoned to save his wife when he gets there . There's also the question that if you murder someone by stabbing in a Satanic ritual then set fire to their house how would the police think it's an accident rather than murder

This type of implausibility spoils the episode to a certain degree , but only when you stop and analyse the events . For someone who has no knowledge as to what this series is about then it's a fairly good intro